Direct reduction plants for producing direct reduced iron, known as DRI or sponge iron, hot briquetted iron, or the like, (in general pre-reduced materials useful as feedstocks for iron and steelmaking), currently produce DRI by reacting a reducing gas, composed principally of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, at temperatures in the range of 750 to 1050.degree. C., with a bed of particulate iron-containing material. Since the handling of feed materials produce variable quantities of iron ore fines, there has been a constant search for methods and apparatus which avoid the problems of processing fines in a conventional reactor shaft. Several inventions have been proposed including the previous separation of fines present in the feedstock (usually by means of a screen) and their subsequent reduction usually in fluidized bed reactors.